Minotaur

Minotaur, Greek Minotauros (“Minos’s Bull”), in Greek mythology, a fabulous monster of Crete that had the body of a man and the head of a bull. It was the offspring of Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, and a snow-white bull sent to Minos by the god Poseidon for sacrifice. Minos, instead of sacrificing it, kept it alive; Poseidon as a punishment made Pasiphae fall in love with it. Her child by the bull was shut up in the Labyrinth created for Minos by Daedalus.

Theseus killing the Minotaur, detail of a vase painting by the Kleophrades Painter, 6th century …

Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum

This 1972 video, produced by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation, shows how …

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

A son of Minos, Androgeos, was later killed by the Athenians; to avenge his death, Minos demanded that seven Athenian youths and seven maidens should be sent every ninth year (or, according to another version, every year) to be devoured by the Minotaur. When the third time of sacrifice came, the Athenian hero Theseus volunteered to go, and, with the help of Ariadne, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, he killed the monster and ended the tribute. Theseus escaped with Ariadne. A modern version of the tale is told in Mary Renault’s novel The King Must Die (1958).

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legendary ruler of Crete; he was the son of Zeus, the king of the gods, and of Europa, a Phoenician princess and personification of the continent of Europe. Minos obtained the Cretan throne by the aid of the Greek god Poseidon, and from Knossos (or Gortyn) he gained control over the Aegean islands,...

...Such are the tales of more than one sack of Troy, which are supported by archaeological evidence, and the labours of Heracles, which might suggest Mycenaean feudalism. Again, the legend of the Minotaur (a being part human, part bull) could have arisen from exaggerated accounts of bull leaping in ancient Crete.

...the throne. After crushing a conspiracy by the Pallantids, sons of Pallas (Aegeus’s brother), Theseus successfully attacked the fire-breathing bull of Marathon. Next came the adventure of the Cretan Minotaur, half man and half bull, shut up in the legendary Cretan Labyrinth.

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In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a creature who had the body of a man and the head of a bull. His mother was Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos of Crete. The Minotaur’s father was a snow-white bull sent to Minos by the god Poseidon for sacrifice. Instead of sacrificing the bull, however, Minos kept it alive. As a punishment, Poseidon made Pasiphae fall in love with the bull. Her child by the bull was the Minotaur. Minos had the inventor Daedalus create the Labyrinth on Crete to hold the Minotaur. The Labyrinth was a maze from which the Minotaur could not escape.

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